HTC One Takes World-Record for Smartphone Screen Quality – But Does it Matter?

Running circles around the iPhone 5’s Retina display and summarily wiping the floor with it to boot, the HTC One has officially landed with the highest-quality display panel ever fitted to a Smartphone.

For those who like their specs and features on paper in pure numbers – the HTC One packs a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels into a screen of just 4.7-inches, which in turn equates to a pixel count of 468ppi.

By contrast, the Microsoft Surface Pro which has lapped up the acclaim for its display quality packs the same 1080p resolution into a 10.6-inch panel, which equates to a comparatively measly 208ppi.

But it will of course be Apple’s fabled Retina display panels with which the HTC One is most frequently compared, so let’s take a look at the facts on paper.

The iPhone 5S serves up a respectable 326ppi, though in figures this seems to be massively inferior to the quality of the One. According to market experts, it really all comes down to viewing distance and from how far away or how close individual pixels become visible. It is argued by some however that when taking standard viewing distances into account, any number of pixels above a certain count is pretty much a waste of time – a highly debated and contested issue.

Until bettered by anything else in the pipeline however, the HTC One is officially the world-record holder in terms of Smartphone touchscreen pixel densities.

Set to begin shipping on its official release date of March 15, the HTC One has plenty of close competition in the Smartphone world with certain rivals coming out at the close 440ppi mark. Some would argue that the difference between 440ppi and 468ppi is pretty much impossible to distinguish with the naked eye, which although completely true doesn’t take away from the fact that the HTC One now carries the kind of bragging rights few Smartphones are ever graced with.